A Brief History 

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• Some 250 million years the first step of creating was made, about 23 million years ago the island  came above the sea level. The island is the oldest among the islands. More about the geology check here.
  Just a WARNING: Do not collect any fossil, stone etc. from any site, the penalties are horrendous, including imprisonment!

• Fuerteventura early history, like the other Canary Islands is a mystery. Fuerteventura was originally inhabited by Berbers from North Africa living in caves and underground holes. Agriculture  and fishing were the forms of livelihood for these first inhabitants.  They became known as ‘Mahos or Mahorero’. It come from the word mahos, a type of goatskin shoes.
  There is a museum at La Atalayita, in the Antigua municipality, which shows these dwellings and the type of tools and pottery they used. 
   

• From the 11th Century different  settlers arrived on the island - first the Phoenicians, later one the Portugiese and the Spaniards followed. 
  Rumors about San Borondón - the mysterious, the lost one or the unreachable  island appearing in many ballads, poems and songs initiated many expeditions in the 15th until the 18th century. Read more...

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• The name Forte Ventura appeared the first time on a map from Angelino Dulcet (1339).
  From where the name Fuerteventura comes from is not so sure, it could be Fuerte Aventura - Strong Adventure or Fuerte Viento - Strong Winds or the spanisch word Venturoso - the Favored One
   

• Fuerteventura was divided into 2 Guanchen kingdoms following King Guise and King Ayose. The territories of these tribes were called Maxorata (in the north) and Jandia (in the south). The kingdoms have been divided by a wall (known as Erbania) that crossed the La Pared isthmus.
  Several Spanish and Portuguese expeditions wre organized in 1340, followed my Moors and European slave traders.
   

• The first invaders were led by the French explorer Jean de Béthencourt, who was accompanied by fellow crusader, Gadifer de la Salle. By 1402, with the Castilian king's support, they had established Fuerteventura's first capital, Betancuria, which remained the capital right up until 1859. When the territory became a subject of the Catholic Monarchs in 1476, Betancuria served as the island's religious centre. Present-day visitors can still visit Betancuria Church.
   

• 1405, Jean de Bethencourt completed his conquest of the island.
   

• "In 1424 Pope Martin V, through the Betancuria Brief, edicted the establishment of the Bishopric of Fuerteventura, which encompassed all the Canary Islands save for the island of Lanzarote.[5] The origin of this bishopric is directly related to the events that occurred after the Great Schism (1378-1417), in that the bishop of San Marcial del Rubicón of Lanzarote (at the time, the only diocese in the Canary Islands) did not recognize the papacy of Martin V, and instead adhered to anti-Pope Benedict XIII. The Bishopric of Fuerteventura was based in the Parish of Santa María de Betancuria, bestowing upon the latter the status of Grant Cathedral. After the reabsorbtion of the Diocese of San Marcial del Rubicón by the papacy of Pope of Martin V, the Bishopric of Fuerteventura was abolished in 1431, only seven years after it was created.[6]The first census recorded a population of some 1,200 inhabitants. The population increased gradually thereafter. In 1476 the territory became the Señorío Territorial de Fuerteventura, subjected to the Catholic Monarchs.[7] In later years, the island was invaded by the Spanish, French and the English." source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuerteventura
   

• Many pirate raids on the island took place over time. In 1740 two major pirate attacks by two separate English privateers on the town of Tuineje. The local population averted the attacks. Every October this success is celebrated at a re-enactment in Gran Tarajal.
  The castle (1743)  at Caleta de Fueste is one of the coastal fortification from those times. 
   

• In 1708, Fuerteventura fell under military rule, headed by the 'Governor at Arms'.  The title was a hereditary  one passed down in the powerful family of the Sánchez-Dumpiérrez. 
   

• "Military rule lasted until the year of 1859, after Isabella II had sanctioned a free-trade area which covered the Canary Islands some seven years earlier. The capital was subsequently moved to Puerto del Rosario and in 1863, a lawyer named Manuel Velázquez Cabrera successfully established the island's earliest council. In 1912, for the first time in its history, Fuerteventura was officially allowed to self-govern and, consequently, Cabrera is now remembered by a statue on the island." source: http://www.world-guides.com/europe/spain/canary-islands/fuerteventura/fuerteventura_history.html